glass of water," he says, "taken out of this river when at its height, yields about one part in four of mud. No wonder, then, that the subsiding waters should quickly form a stratum of earth, or that the delta should encroach on the sea." Rennell also computed the mean quantity of water discharged into the sea by the Ganges through the whole year to be 80,000 cubic feet in a second. When the river is most swollen, and its velocity much accelerated, the quantity is 405,000 cubic feet in a second. Other writers agree that the violence of the tropical rains, and the fineness of the alluvial particles in the plains of Bengal, cause the waters of the Ganges to be charged with foreign matter to an extent wholly unequalled by any large European river during the greatest floods. The Ganges frequently sweeps down large islands, and Colebrooke relates examples of the rapid filling up of some branches of this river, and the excavation of new channels, where the number of square miles of soil removed in a short time was truly astonishing, the column of earth being 114 feet high. Forty square miles, or 25,600 acres, are mentioned as having been carried away in one district in the course of a few years. If we compare the proportion of mud, as given by Rennell, with his computation of the quantity of water discharged, very striking results are obtained. If it were true that the Ganges in the flood season contained one part in four of mud, we should then be obliged to suppose that there passes down every four days a quantity of mud equal in volume to the water which is discharged in the course of twenty-four hours. If the mud be assumed to be equal to one-half of the specific gravity of granite (it would, however, be more), the weight of matter daily carried down in the flood seasons would be equal to seventy-four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Even if it should be proved that the turbid waters of the Ganges contain one part in 100 of mud, which is affirmed to be the case in regard to the Rhine, we should be brought to the extraordinary conclusion, that there passes down every two days into the Bay of Bengal a mass about equal in weight and bulk to the Great Pyramid.

The following table is given by Hamilton of the probable length of some of the rivers of India :

1

! 1. Indus

2. Jumna (to its junction with the Ganges 780 miles)

3. Sutledge (to the Indus 900)

4. Jhylum (ditto 750).

5. Gunduck (to the Ganges 450)

Miles to the sea.

..1700

..1500

.1400

1250

980

850

700

700

550

...... 460

400

CATARACTS.

The Ganges, Indus, and Brahmapoutra, during their course among the mountains, exhibit cascades hitherto but imperfectly described. Some very splendid and beautiful waterfalls are met with in the peninsula; the most considerable are those of Bundelcund, of the Western Ghauts, and of the River Cavery.

Falls in Bundelcund.-The only account we have met with of these magnificent falls is given by Captain Franklin. He visited all that are between the Katra pass and the Tonse river. The first is near the village of Bilohi, about twelve miles west from the pass of Katra, where the fall of water is 398 feet, and the rocky wall of red sandstone over which it is precipitated nearly perpendicular. Ten miles farther west is the cataract of Bouti, 400 feet in height, which is very picturesque, owing to the great extent of the circus over which it falls. At Keuti, twentyfour miles farther west, is another fall 272 feet in height; and westward still, at Chachai, one 362 feet high. At a short distance from Chachai is the cataract of the Tonse, where the volume of water is greater than in the others, but the fall less, being only 200 feet.

Many of the waterfalls in the Western Ghauts, although exhibiting magnificent scenes during the rains, are completely dried up in the hot season. There are many fine cascades in the Ghauts above Honoor, which for sublimity and magnitude will probably yield to few in the world. They have hitherto been little visited, even by Europeans in India; and it is, we believe, only within the last ten or twelve years that they have received a name. They are situated on the river Shorvutty, about fifteen miles up the

Ghauts from the town of Garsipa, and are now known to Europeans by the name of the Falls of Garsipa.

Falls of Garsipa.-The country in the neighbourhood of the falls, says Dr. Christie in a communication to us, is extremely beautiful, combining the majestic appearance of a tropical forest with the softer characters of an English park. Hill and dale are covered with soft green, which is finely contrasted with a border of dark forest, with numerous clumps of majestic trees, and thickets of acacias, the carunda, and other flowering shrubs.

Upon approaching the falls you emerge from a thick. wood, and come suddenly upon the river, gliding gently among confused masses of rock. A few steps more over huge blocks of granite bring you to the brink of a fearful chasm, rocky, bare, and black; down which you look to the depth of 1000 feet. Over its sides rush the different branches of the river, the largest stretching downwards without break in one huge curling pillar of white foam. Beneath, the waters by the force of their fall are projected far out in straight lines; and at some distance below the falls form a thin cloud of white vapour, which rises high - above the surrounding forest. The sides of the chasm are formed by slanting strata of rock, the regularity of which forms a striking contrast to the disorder of the tumultuous waters, the broken detached masses of stone, and the soft tint of the crowning woods.

The effect of all these objects rushing at once upon the sight is truly sublime. The spectator is generally obliged to retire after the first view of them, in order gradually to familiarize himself with their appearance; for the feeling which he experiences in suddenly coming on them amounts almost to pain. After the first impression has somewhat subsided, and he has become accustomed to the scene, he can then leisurely analyze its parts, and become acquainted with the details.

The chasm is somewhat of an elliptical form. At its narrowest and deepest part is the principal fall; smaller branches of the river and little rills dash over its sides, and are almost all dissipated in spray before they reach the bottom. The principal branch of the river is much contracted in breadth before it reaches the brink of the preci

pice, where it probably does not exceed fifty or sixty feet; but it contains a very large body of water.

The falls can only be seen from above, for the cliffs on both sides of the river afford no path to admit of a descent. Some gentlemen have attempted to reach the bottom by having themselves lowered by ropes; but no one has hitherto succeeded. A view of the falls from below, says Dr. Christie, would, I am convinced, exceed in grandeur every thing of the kind in the world. The spectator can very easily, and with great safety, look down into the chasm to its very bottom. Some large inclined plates of gneiss project from its edge; so that by laying himself flat upon one of these he can stretch his head considerably beyond the brink of the precipice.

Although no accurate measurement has yet been made of the height of these falls, it would appear from Dr. Christie's account that they cannot be much short of one thousand feet.

Falls of the Cavery.-The falls in the course of the river Cavery, still farther south in the peninsula than Garsipa, are celebrated by travellers. Of these two are particularly noticed, viz. the Ganga Chuki and Birra Chuki.

The branch of the river which forms the Ganga Chuki is subdivided into two lesser ramifications, a short distance above the fall. The nearest and by much the largest of these streams is broken by projecting masses of rock into one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller torrents. The water of the large cataract plunges into the ravine below, from a height of from 100 to 150 feet; while the smaller torrents, impeded in their course by the intervening rocks, work their way to a distance of about 200 feet from the base of the precipice, where the whole unite, -the other detached portion of the river precipitating itself at the same time in two columns from a cliff about 200 feet high, the rapid above flowing nearly at right angles with the principal branch. The surrounding scenery is wild, and the whole offers a most striking spectacle, especially during the height of the rains.

The second cataract is that of another arm of the Cavery, at a spot called Birra Chuki about a mile from the fall above described. The channel of the river here is spread out to a magnificent expanse, and it's stream divided

into no less than ten distinct torrents, which fall with infinite variety of form over a broken precipice of more than 100 feet, but presenting no single body of water equal in volume to the main fall at Ganga Chuki.

CHAPTER X.

Geology and Mineralogy.

Geology and Mineralogy-1. Soils of India, viz. Soil of Bengal; Cotton Ground; Musaree Soil; Laterite Soil; Nitre Soil; Soda Soil; Salt Soil-2. Geognostical Structure and Composition of India-1. Himmaleh or Alpine Region; Its Rocks, Minerals, and Mines-2. Middle India; Its Rocks, Minerals, and Mines-3. Peninsular India; ⚫ Its Rocks, Minerals, and Mines-4. Submergence and Upraising of Land5. Destruction of the ancient City of Ougein and other Places in India by a Shower of Volcanic Ashes-6. Earthquakes.

REGARDING the geology and mineralogy of India our information is very defective, and many years must elapse before even the general geognostical and mineralogical relations of so vast a region can be determined. The India Company has munificently patronised the researches of the botanist; it is now time to encourage and forward other branches of science. We expect ere long to hear of the establishment of meteorological observatories amply furnished, in well selected stations, from Cape Comorin to the centre of the Himmalehs;-to find carried on by scientific men throughout India those important investigations requisite for the illustration of hydrography;-to rejoice in the appointment of active and experienced geologists, mineralogists, and zoologists, for every part of our Eastern empire. What is known of the geology and mineralogy of India has arisen from the labours of Hamilton Buchanan, Heyne, Voysey, Dangerfield, Turnbull Christie, Franklin, Adam, Hardie, Webb, Herbert, Gerrard, Hodgson,

* Dr. Turnbull Christie, we are happy to announce, has been appointed by the Indian Company to investigate the geology of the Bombay presidency. A more fortunate selection could not have been made.